Iron Mike Tyson vs Terrible Tim Witherspoon, Prime For Prime

Have we established that Witherspoon had a prime? He was very erratic. When was his prime and how long did it last?

 

Why does that bother you, what "Tyson fans" say? Show some thick skin, grow up and be a man about this boxing thing, mmm-kay?!

Spoon had the power and chin to compete with Tyson, just not beat him. I say prime for prime and Spoon lasts as long as Pinklon Thomas did. Tyson TKO6 Witherspoon.

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James Tillis

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Alfonzo Ratliff

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Larry Holmes

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Pinklon Thomas

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Bonecrusher Smith

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Tony Tubbs

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Frank Bruno

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Jose Ribalta

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Carl Williams

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Andrew Golota

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I'll stop right there. So all you guys get the gist of it.
Spoon would be a tough opponent for Tyson. One of his toughest under Rooney's tutelage.

 

Except Spoon was out of shape vs. Bonecrusher who hadn't looked all that impressive, and who Spoon easily beat the year before. If he was fighting Tyson, especially considering how destructive Tyson was, Spoon would have whipped into shape for it.

 

The Tyson fans bother me because they don't want to grow up and admit there's at least another 50 fighters greater than Tyson. Tyson fans usually don't explain anything, they just think he's so invincible that any fighter, no matter who he is (they might not even know who the fighter is) will lose to Tyson.

 

he generally peaked from '83 to '86, but I know what you mean, some guys are all over. If you want to cover all of Tim's good performances you would have to extend Spoon's peak to the 90s, given he beat Williams and Gonzalez, and gave Mercer a tough fight, but big wins for him were inconsistent in the 90s, so I stick with '83 to '86.

 

Tim would rock Mike a few times, but get outpunched and probably more often than not duped defensively. Mike wins a unanimous decision.

 

Witherspoon was the one man that Tyson’s camp didn’t want anything to do with in the late 80s. That said I’d favor Tyson to win but Tim’s style could give him fits.

 

Don't let it bother you dude. Why let it bother you when every fighter has a fanbase that goes overboard?! Ali has fans who claim he'll never lose, some Foreman fans claim he could break bones with a single jab, I don't even wanna talk about Mayweather fans, some Duran fans think he's the best fighter from Lightweight to Middleweight, and some Tyson fans think he could beat a 42 year old George Foreman (imagine?).

 

Oh come on Magoo. It's because Spoon took King to court so in return King snubbed Spoon and threw him at the back of the waiting list. Unless you have evidence, and I'm not talking about a Frank Lotierzo article type evidence either...

 

I agree. Spoon would've taken Tyson seriously. All the other challengers also trained like demons in fear of getting hurt by Tyson but most importantly: beating Mike Tyson meant more than winning a title belt. It would make you famous, you're going down in history and becoming extremely rich.

Tyson-Spoon would've been a tremendous battle. It ranks up there with Tyson-Holyfield '91 and Tyson-Foreman as tremendous fights that could have been.

 

Witherspoon due to holding the WBA title was part of the Unification series going on to unify the heavyweight division. Tyson had beat Berbick not long prior to this fight.

The winner of Witherspoon - Smith II already had a March 7 date against Tyson carved in stone with a $1mil payday to boot. All Witherspoon had to do was beat Smith who he had pretty much shut out over 12 the previous year.

Witherspoon losing to Smith is why he never got to fight Tyson.

After losing to Smith Witherspoon certainly never did anything to put himself into contention for a shot at Tyson regardless. Maybe he was in King's bad books and couldn't get any top names in the ring (maybe) but they were mostly lining up and getting bowled over by Tyson regardless.

 

Very interesting ! A lighter than 220+ lbs Tyson lost only once time( It was just an early disqualification loss to Holy.)
When Tyson was under 220+ lbs he never was down but he could beat fighters like Ferguson,Tillis,Green,
Marvis Frazier,Ribalta,Smith ,Thomas,Biggs,Holmes,Tubbs,Spinks,Bruno (two times),Carl Williams,Alex Stewart,
Ruddock (two times),Seldon.
Considering we use a prime and maybe a well-trained Tyson who was durable,quick and sharp he would beat
Witherspoon easily.
Lot of boxing fans respect Witherspoon because he looked good against Holmes but Williams and Spinks
looked good also and Tyson destroyed them in the first round.

 

I’m aware of all that but it was talked about among various circles in the late 80s and early 90s that team Tyson didn’t want Witherspoon.

 

Haven't heard much of that but fair enough Goo.

 

Tyson should win this. I don't think Witherspoon has the right style to beat Tyson.